


Mermaid AU

by Rexsketches



Category: Splatoon
Genre: Blazer and Mask make an appearance too but they have small roles, Drabble, Gen, mermaid au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-20
Updated: 2020-05-20
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:55:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24289285
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rexsketches/pseuds/Rexsketches
Summary: What happens when you are a type of rare merfolk who happens to meet a supposedly extinct member of society? A small, little drabble pertaining to a fun Mermaid AU in the Splatoon Manga universe. Headcanons and some lore building for said AU also included.
Relationships: Bamboo/Stealth (Splatoon)
Kudos: 7
Collections: CoroikaCollection





	Mermaid AU

“I-I’m not making it up!” Stealth sputtered to the masked Inkling before him. Two other sets of eyes glared at him incredulously, one shaking their head while the other chuckled. The small ship underneath them lurched in the motion of the choppy waves as it made it’s trek across the sea. Back to shore where the crew’s work shift denounced the end for the day.

“A Salmonid with the upper body of an Inklinggggg” Mask chimed in with his drawl. Hooded eyes beyond his gas mask were loaded with boredom. He’d been taking newcomers out to show them the ropes ever since he joined Grizzco Industries for a few extra dollars in his pocket. Mr. Grizz certainly wasn’t paying him extra outside of meeting quota to put up with such foolery. Particularly, the one standing right in front of him. Biggest fool of them all claiming he’d seen a new, intelligent breed of Salmonid.

“I’ve been doing this gig for mmmmonths” Mask sighed. His gloved hands fingered through the pages of the manual with speed. Not a single image represented what Stealth had supposedly seen in their run. “Personally would have seen with my own two eyes if such a thing existed.” the manual flipped shut with a crisp snap of Mask’s wrist. If a creature as Stealth described were real, Mr. Grizz would have outlined it in the job description by now. Along with the huge payout that came from capturing such a creature, dead or alive. “No mention in the book either. That Salmonid doesn’t exisssst except in your imagination” Mask huffed.

“I-I swear..” Stealth gulped hard as all three Inklings turned their attentions on him. What could he do to make the three of them believe the sight? “I’m not making it up!” he began, throwing his arm back to point at the direction of the wrecked ship they recently departed. 

“She was real...” Stealth mumbled.

********

Chaos brewed on the wrecked ship anywhere her lime green eyes darted. Shouts from the Salmonids to keep defending their home rang out above screams of their comrades succumbing to their fate. So far, the Salmonids seemed to be holding their own to the sudden attack on their families. Despite the unorganized chaos, it looked like they were winning.

Bamboo really had no reason to be in this territory at all, at least, no reason to be swimming in the waters just outside the wreckage. Glancing at her scaled tail below the water, it made sense to any eye why’d she fit in with the rest of the Salmonids. Her own glistening tail was the same pale grey as the Salmons, almost identical in anatomy as well. The catch however, remained above her waistline. Where the tail started sprung an unusual body, ones that the Salmonids simply called ‘enemies’. To her, they were known as ‘Inklings’. Therefore, she was an unholy mesh of Salmonid and Inkling.

To call herself a mermaid, like similar kin who lived in the deeper waters was putting it mildly. None of the merfolk clans regarded her species as kin. The Salmonid, while they tolerated her kind in general, wanted nothing to do with her kith either. As for the land dwellers, she doubted the squids would want to ally themselves up with such a monstrosity, especially when they seemed to terrorize the Salmonids almost daily. There were also stories of a society that lived underground, but Bamboo knew that the Octarians had died out years ago in the war. Nobody had seen them since. Dead, probably as the ‘humans’ had gone extinct many years before in the same underground. Probably if Octarians and Humans had been alive, they’d have easily shunned her folk as well.

Finding herself in Salmonid territory wasn’t a choice Bamboo had made. Casually swimming by the territory, she heard their distress cries and swam to investigate. That’s when she had been scooped up by the Snatchers and forced to lend a hand.

“Quick, Quick!” A Snatcher to her side hissed. She watched a few other Snatchers waddle out of the water towards the wreckage. Hesitating at first, she eventually pushed herself out of the water behind the last Snatcher. She’d been quickly briefed on her job for the current situation, to recover any of the golden eggs and as many as possible before the attackers took them. The golden eggs to Salmonid were a precious commodity, being that the eggs were the next generation of offspring for the Salmonid tribes. To her knowledge, eggs highly sought after due to their power. Bamboo understood how important those golden eggs were for her own kind to survive. How the precious cargo needed to be protected. So she set to work on a recovery mission.

Swimming in murky waters at night were easy as a breeze for Bamboo. On land, her lower body made moving a difficult task. Her lower body, meant for agile propulsion through water became a cumbersome burden, slowing her pace from the Salmons ahead to the point she’d been left behind. How they moved on land made her slightly envious. She’d find her footing and a good pace to upkeep once she kept moving.

The sounds of battle grew louder the closer she approached land. Her ears perked up at every sharp sound they could pick up, trying to discern who currently held the edge in the fight. To her left, her sharp eyes caught the gleam of a golden egg, laid abandoned in overturned debris laid out on the deck of the wrecked ship. Bamboo carefully pulled the golden orb from it’s forlorn position and gently held it in her webbed, clawed hands. The bony fish within the egg regarded her quietly, staring back with it’s unblinking eyes. Bamboo sighed a deep relief at her catch. This little one would live.

“A-ack! G-g-et these bugs off me!” a different voice broke out before she could react. A hurtling figure rammed into her body with force to take breath out of her lungs. Tangled with the figure’s flailing appendages, Bamboo went head over tail with them, the egg slipping from her grasp. Dazed from the assault, Bamboo lifted her head to survey the status of her attacker, whom lay below her, groaning and shaking his head. The figure was dressed head to toe in some strange land dwelling clothing, bright, god awful oranges and greens. She’d seen similar garments from the land dwellers who captained the ships in the ocean. Bamboo frowned. Nothing good same from those ships anyways, and if this figure was wearing the same gear, it meant they were the ones responsible for attacking this tribe of Salmonid. 

The figure seemed to be regaining some consciousness, shaking their head as they tried to sit up. Bamboo noticed one of their hands clutched a large, teal pointed object she’d never seen. Whatever it’s use, it was a weird apparatus to her. The figures other hand however...Bamboo’s eyes were drawn to the golden egg laying a few feet away.

In a heartbeat, Bamboo pinned the figure back to the ground with one large webbed hand, her other raised threatening over her head, poised with sharp talons outwards ready to strike. A Salmonid-like hiss escaped her throat in warning, her sharp, Inkling beak and rows of pointed teeth beyond snarling. The small fins on her back bristled as did her scales along her tail. Bamboo had never killed, let alone fought anyone in her life. Ripping this figure’s life out wasn’t something she was looking forward to, but they had attacked the Salmonid, and the egg needed to be protected. A little blood on her hands was enough sacrifice for the life inside the egg to live.

“P-Please don’t hurt m-me!” the figure whimpered. Arms went up to claw at the garments covering their face, all the while speaking in a strange language Bamboo did not understand. “I-I’m an ally! I-I’m an ally!” the figure kept chanting, all the while struggling to pull the devices off their face. Bamboo tightened her grip on her prey as they struggled.

“S-see?!” the figure protested, right at the moment Bamboo decided to make a move and strike the life out of the poor soul. However, her clawed hand stopped inches from the revealed face of the figure, who tried mightily to cower again behind his arms. 

Bamboo’s guard dropped as confusion set in. The arm that had been about to rip this attacker’s life out, instead moved one of the cowering arms out of the way for her to take a better look. Bristling scales went back into resting phase as further confusion took hold of her body. There was no way, no possible way!

Staring back at her with grown fear in his own similar lime green eyes, was a literal myth. From what she could tell, he was roughly almost similar in age to her. But it wasn’t his age that made the sight incredible to believe. The figure had a mostly shaved head except for the one, single spotted tentacle laying about his head much like a Salmonid’s mohawk. This wasn’t an Inkling staring right back at. This was some other creature, a creature thought to have long died off!

He was one of those fabled Octarians! But how?

“I-I don’t mean you any harm...” he whispered, his breath still stressed at the prospect he could die at any moment. He tried struggling out from underneath her body, but Bamboo quickly reacted by further putting her full weight on him. Her arm went up again in mock threat in case he tried something stupid, and he quickly recoiled with a wheeze. 

“I-I don’t want to harm you. I-I didn’t want to be here in the first place” he soothed. The object he’d been holding earlier had been discarded and he no longer looked toward the egg. All eyes were on her now. “L-Leave me alone and I can promise you, I’ll leave you alone too. Y-es?” he persuaded, pleading almost with those scared eyes.

Bamboo really didn’t want to harm him either. She had not intended to get caught up in this battle. She’d jumped in since saving the eggs seemed a noble cause at the time. Besides, he looked pretty defenceless despite the object he’d been carrying. If he was lying, she’d still have time to overpower him and rip him to pieces. 

Bamboo moved herself off of the figure, keeping him in close range as she retrieved the egg. Likewise, she watched him shakily get to his feet and retrieve his dropped item. Hastily, he was covering his face, notably his head and eyes back up.

“You’re...different...” he spoke again. Turning to face him, they stared at one another for a long moment. If she didn’t know any better, he must think her an odd sight as well. Bamboo cradled the egg closer to her body, this time she wasn’t going to drop it so carelessly. 

A horn resounded in the night. Both she and the figure looking upwards to the dark, starless sky from where the sound seemed to originate. She’d almost forgotten about the battle! Who exactly was winning? Had the Snatchers located all the eggs and safely removed them?

Bamboo had no time to ponder as the figure began urging her body back towards the ocean. Shoving and pushing with all his might, his hasty words that she needed to get away from the ship wreckage and fast. Diving into the water with her bundle, Bamboo turned one last look at the figure, who had seemed to compose himself, the object in his hand clutched proudly.

“Swim far away from here before the rest of the crew finds you!” he shouted. “Go!”

She didn’t need him to tell her twice.

********

“For eel?” a yellow-green eyebrow rose on the face of a highly colourful and beautiful mermaid. The lower half of her was a brightly coloured fish with elegant, flowing fins and scales. The upper half of her was unique, an Inkling much like her own upper half. The only difference was that Blazer’s kind were more accepted in the world.

“Blazer, please believe me. He was real!” Bamboo sat on the rock beside her longtime friend, sea spray splashing the two as the waves crashed on their meeting point. After having delivered the egg safely back into the Salmonid’s fins, Bamboo sought out her only friend in the world to retell her story. Bamboo thought Blazer would strike a cord with the retelling, excited even. Yet, Blazer seemed skeptical of the entire thing.

Normal mermaids like Blazer wouldn’t have had anything to do with Bamboo’s kind, despite being the same type of kin. It was the Salmonid half that made them unacceptable to other merfolk. They felt Salmonid were destructive not only to the ecosystem, but to all lives. Salmonid merfolk were known to be slightly less destructive then their Salmonid counterparts, but that didn’t stop the merfolk from dismissing them entirely. Somehow, Blazer and her had become friends, and the friendship seemed to work despite the difference.

In case of the story. It seemed Blazer simply wasn’t going to believe a word.

“The fact you mingled in Salmonid territory is already a story I have trouble believing.” Blazer began. She was happy for her friend to finally get out of her shell and try to interact with other species despite the animosity towards her kin. “What makes you think I’d believe an Octarian is alive? One you claim you met in this same Salmonid area. Octarians have been extinct for years!” Blazer’s eyes scrutinized her point. Bamboo was beginning to think Blazer saw her as a cold-blooded murderer and went into Salmonid territory just to steal an egg. Fabricating a story to prove her innocence. Which was ridiculous! Her kind could produce their own gold eggs, why would she need to steal one? She’d even given the egg back to it’s rightful owner...she could at least prove that point in her story!

Even as friends, it seemed Blazer still held a bit of ill bias towards her kind.

“As my only friend you need to believe me on this” Bamboo felt as if she were on a losing battle. How could her best friend not believe what she’d seen? Being dismissed like this was really starting to bristle her scales. “I would never lie and make up such tall fish stories!” she pouted.

How could she convince her friend she'd seen an Octarian, when she had no evidence to back his existence up?

**Author's Note:**

> There was a Mermaid AU going around on Twitter that seemed like loads of fun to build lore upon. So I took it upon myself to write out a small drabble based on some of the Salmonid Mermaid headcanons. Might revisit this AU sometime again in the future.


End file.
